Moreover, an influential paper by the American economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff suggests that economic growth falls sharply when a country s public debt rises above 90 of GDP.

So the policy prescription for solving the crisis seems simple austerity.

The world as a whole needs tighter monetary and fiscal policy.

Hard Turkey

But the spectacularly muddle headed argument nowadays that too much austerity is killing Europe is not surprising.

Austerity has failed.

The Global Economy s Inevitable Hard Landing

Lacking access to basic economic tools such as exchange rate and monetary policies, Argentina could not surmount the profound external shocks of the second half of the 1990s, when export prices fell, the US dollar appreciated, and Brazil, the country's main trading partner, devalued its currency. The only alternative was severe fiscal austerity, for which the government never mustered the political will.

The only alternative was severe fiscal austerity, for which the government never mustered the political will.

To translate its vision into action, the Chinese government will need strong policies, such as the environmental taxes already imposed.

But today s terrorist threat is not Samuel Huntington s clash of civilizations.

Of course, the hard power of command remains important.

We need hard power to deal with such cases.

Fiscal austerity and balanced budgets should be priorities in the longer term, but they are inappropriate now.

Accordingly, risk is unavoidable monetary policy that is too loose risks inflation if it is too tight, it can cause unnecessary unemployment, with all the suffering that follows.

Tight monetary and fiscal policies are now de rigueur (until quite recently printing money to finance the budget deficit was widely considered acceptable).

The cause of this state of affairs, in one word, is austerity.

It took hard military power to sever that tie.

But austerity can never be self defeating for the external adjustment.

Only hard power can deal with them.

Google is a company with values and principles.

In the East Asian currency crises, the tough macro policies required by the IMF and the U.S. Treasury were intended to restore the confidence of international lenders and investors.

But politics, alas, is politics.

Hard power grows out of a country's military and economic might.

Although Chen s government, under pressure from the opposition Kuomintang, later restarted work on the plant, design revisions have repeatedly delayed its completion. Opposition from local residents remains stiff.

Opposition from local residents remains stiff.

Ukraine s politics are not those of the steppe.

If the gossips decide it's politics, it will be politics.

The efforts of Kan s government are obviously hampered by a rigid and much fragmented bureaucratic infrastructure.

Do what Argentina did, or Italy. Give up the national money and create a hard link to a world class currency.

Hard and soft power can reinforce or undermine each other.

A hard link means a currency board, no less.

The roots of Greece s problems stretch far deeper than the austerity of recent years.

It now recognizes that the capital market liberalization which it pushed around the world incited huge instabilities and was a central factor in the global financial crisis. It also recognizes that the way it restructured Indonesia s banks led to a run on them , that it pursued excessively contractionary policies in East Asia, and that these policies deepened the downturns.

It also recognizes that the way it restructured Indonesia s banks led to a run on them , that it pursued excessively contractionary policies in East Asia, and that these policies deepened the downturns.

The policy worked.

Blood Politics

Piñata Politics

Foreign policy .

Constitutional Politics

Monetary Policy.

Fiscal Policy.

Labor Policy.

The Politics of Frustration

The Politics of Fun